Sandals Resorts Omdömen 299

Needed to cancel a trip due to family concerns. When we booked we were not informed that trip insurance charge of $248 was not refundable. Despite this, company refused to issue a credit, although transaction was less than on week old.

This is the forth sandals we stayed at and I must say this was the poorest one. Food was terrible and always served cold, staff makes you feel that you are a inconvenience being there. You wait in line a long time to get a table in the restaurants even though there are not lines they look at you and walk bye the empty table hoping you will go away. They are short on material such as bedding wash cloths. I waited 15 to 20
Min for a spare room key only to be told sorry we have none . This
Is not a 5 star resort. I complained to melaine the guest relation manager who listens well and a excellent person for the hotel to improve on if the listen to her
They offered Me 3000 points which is 125 USd with a release to sign that I will not tell anything 3rd parties. Keep your money I would rather tell future guest to ward them off. Resort is beautiful and laid out nice dive crew is excellent. Most dives sites were dead few fish and lots of wrecks to dive in the outside only. Save your
Money and go to saint Lucas which is a outstanding sandals resort

Our room is not clean. It smells so musty that it’s burning my throat. I called and made them aware. They would send housekeeping but that won’t help the nasty smell. I won’t be back here

Rip off and a Scam - legal scam model explained

1) Flight tickets: the city I live in to the Jamaica on WestJet website is 400$ a ticket. the 100% same ticket, same flight same class sandals sold to me for 1200+
1A) all -inclusive hides these crazy pumped up charges.
1B) even if you cancel the rooms they already made a lot money from your tickets
1C) if they made so much profit on the tickets, they have a huge scope to give refunds, or at least partial refunds ( if you buy tickets on westjet website you get 100% credit)
1D) they will claim they make no profit on the tickets so the extra money just went into think air
1E) when you fall into a scam it is not by force or at gun point it is because they sweet talk / marketing and make you give your money to them. and now you are the fool for being scammed not the scammer. same story I am the fool for trusting them and giving them money. when I asked them about how a 400$ ticket is charged at 1200+ their reply was I did it like I gave them the money so it's my fault. ( I gave them the money because I believed them when hey said they make no profit on air tickets ) so basically they will lie and if you fall for their lie you are the fool.

2) Hospitality: lol, they are no way close to 5 star service. I have stayed at a wide range of hotels ( class wise) and also worked in the hotel industry for 3 years. and I give them 1/5 stars for hospitality

3) Stay: much better stays are available at much cheaper rates.

4) this place is close to a 2 or 3 star.

Our party of 4 as a return to Sandals but 1st for Bahamas was so disappointing on rooms, food, drinks and that Sandals seems to be the level what we expect only if you upgrade to butler service. Which for what we spent we would never upgrade for what use to be all included. Sad but true never going back

If you expect Sandals to be a top end hotel, please read this and other true reviews before booking and ignore the obvious “ghost” reviews written by people who obviously never stayed in this hotel.

It is not a really awful hotel, it is simply not what one would expect from a top class hotel.

Arrival. - Plane arrived on time and no problem at customs, however around 10 guests had to wait for over half an hour before the minibus turned up. No apologies or reason provided?

The Welcome. - not particularly inspiring but OK. We were given a poorly photocopied A4 showing the restaurants but when we asked if there was a list of entertainments they said they did not have enough photocopies so we had to photograph another photocopied sheet with our phones.

The Rooms - very underwhelming compared to other top end hotels. Clean but pretty tired and in need of an update. Both sinks did not drain properly and the shower did not have a hand held head, only a rain shower. [not always suitable for ladies who do not wish to wash their hair every shower as my wife informs me]
They did not provide some basic items such as slippers, ear buds or even a laundry bag.

Communications. - The internet continually dropped out and had to be reset for every use. There as a large television but no guidance or instructions of how to access any global news such as BBC or CNN.

Swimming. - The pool we used was fine but there was often no towels available until mid morning. Some guests became aware of the shortage and took fresh towels to there room to ensure they had towels for the morning.

Bars and Coffee. - Bars were very hit and miss, in many cases running out of bottles of water.
Getting a drink was never quick and often it seemed the staff were talking [or shouting] amongst themselves while there was a queue.
The coffee machines in some lobbies were a bit of a joke. In the morning they were often not working or there was no take away cups. very unreliable. I did ask a member of staff if she could get me some cups and suggested I walk to the other side of the hotel where they “might” have cups. [unbelievable!]
One strange thing we noticed was none of the bars appeared to have a glass washing machine, everything was washed by hand??? Surely unacceptable in a so called “high end hotel”

Restaurants. - Service. One of the most disappointing issues.
Regularly there was a long queue at many of the desks and no one to seat the guests, over 10 minutes in one case with around 20 guests waiting [Spices lunch]
There was often a long queue at the non booking restaurants and guests being told to come back in an hour in spite of the restaurants having more than half of their tables unoccupied. [ Portofino evening was the worst for this] The desk lady was extremely rude and officious. One evening when we went to the desk to ask for a table for 2 she just shouted “come back in 1 hour without even looking up from her desk and making eye contact. After speaking to some other guests we were not the only ones who experienced this unacceptable behaviour.

Restaurants. - Food. Other than the Bombay which was excellent the food was extremely average. in one case a monkfish dinner was inedible and in another some ribs were so dried up it was impossible to get the meat off the bone.
In one restaurant a glass of red wine for me and a glass of white wine for my wife were served 10 minutes apart. [obviously ordered together]
Average waiting time for lunch at Mariner/Dinos was always minimum 45 minutes plus.
Steaks were certainly not up to standard in quality or portion size.
There were a couple of incidents where some guests did not follow dress codes. In one case a man dripping wet from the swimming pool with no top and bare feet was allowed to wander around “Spices” lunch buffet.

It would be easy to blame much of the above issues on staff but it is pretty obvious the problems is a lack of good management and proper staff training. Most of the staff were simply not trained to a professional standard however a small percentage were simply rude and offensive.
Simply this hotels brands itself way above it’s level and comes nowhere near other similar resorts in the same price range.

There are many much better hotels available offering a much higher level of holiday at a similar or even less cost.

Sandals Barbados is over priced, over rated and not worth the money. Never again!

I recently had a very bad experience staying at the Sandals South Coast resort in Jamaica for my honeymoon in November. The hospitality was very poor and staff were condescending and gave misinformation from the moment we arrived. The value of our room was very bad considering the cost, and I was told I could not upgrade to a better room, even if we paid more. The champagne bucket ice was melted when we arrived and the fake rose petals were very disappointing, plus our room smelled like cigarette smoke.

We arrived around 7:45 p.m., the check-in experience was awkward and lengthy, and we were told the restaurants would be open until midnight so we took our time getting settled in the room before heading out only to find everything had closed at 9 p.m. We tried to order food at the late night bar but they were between meal service. It was a terrible start to be so hungry and exhausted and have nowhere to eat.

I asked for a different room because it was not up to the standards I had requested upon booking (for example, the room did not have an outdoor tub on the patio) and was told there was likely no room for me to upgrade but that the Club Sandals desk would get back to me. Nobody ever got back to me.

I asked for a cancellation and refund of a snorkeling trip because we got pressure-sold into a scuba certification, and I was told to go to the Island Routes desk. Sure enough, the Island Routes desk told me to go back to Club Sandals. Everyone was so unresponsive, unhelpful and dismissive that I ended up calling the main Sandals phone number for help with the refund and still nobody got back to me. I went again to Club Sandals and received condescending attitudes about my request for a refund. I never heard back about the refund while I was on site at the resort and this was very stressful.

With regard to the pressure-sale of the scuba certification, we had only intended to try out scuba diving. After our first dive we were told we would get certified and it would be so easy. Only at the last minute on the day of our first dive as we were leaving were we told we needed to take an online test. The test took 4 hours to complete and the wifi was so incredibly poor that it slowed everything down to a standstill several times while trying to complete the online certification. Doing this on our honeymoon was the absolute opposite of relaxing plus the certification cost was not disclosed to us until checkout and it was very expensive.

I requested to book the beach cabana that was just outside our room on a strip of beach that was not so near to the boat dock because I wanted to swim and not worry about boats and have better water clarity. I was told I could not book that particular cabana or the one right next to it because they would both be closed for refurbishing. Sure enough, nobody came to refurbish the cabanas on the day I had requested and nobody offered it to me once they realized the crew wasn't coming.

I asked for a dinner reservation at Schooners on the day I arrived because I was told to wait to make dining reservations when I arrived rather than in advance of the trip, but was told there was no availability for any of the 5 nights of our stay. I tried asking again the next day and kept getting told no until on the third attempt I was finally offered a 9 p.m. time for dinner at Schooners.

Service at the restaurants varied tremendously and generally we would go long stretches without anyone checking on us while dining. While dining, we received pressure from waiters to leave a review on the Sandals app that neither of us could even get downloaded since the Wifi was so bad. It was clear that preferential treatment and dining times were being given to other guests. We did not appreciate this treatment on our honeymoon.

All around, horrible hospitality, very stressful miscommunication and misinformation, and way more money than the whole experience was worth. I will not be goming back to a Sandals resort.

If you value you money and your life, DONT STAY AT SANDALS BARBADOS! My 82 year old, healthy and active Mother went in for a massage the first day we arrived at the resort. She was de-robing (naked and ready to get into massage bed) and the massage bed was too high with no step to get up into it and due to the height, she couldn’t get totally up on the bed and slipped off. When she hit the tile floor, she fractured her femur and ended up at Bayview Hospital for emergency surgery. The Sandals management staff did not address the issue at all until we went to speak with a manager a day later. We were at the resort with 18 people to attend my sisters wedding and they could have cared less. The massage tech who found her on the floor was crying and visibly upset, yet management did and said nothing!!!

Needless to say, after paying thousands of dollars to attend her daughters wedding, our Mom was never able to walk her youngest daughter down the “aisle” nor was she even in attendance for her wedding; a once in a lifetime event! It was extremely important to have our Mom there as our Dad passed away in 2010.

Wedding was beautiful, but not because of the resort. The only things the resort does for “your free wedding” is give you “free meals” which Hello!!! McFly-are already included in the per night cost! And entice you to spend your money for 4 or more nights at their resort to get a FREE WEDDING, which was far from free! Oh you get a ride to the marriage location in their Wedding Golf Cart and they have a photographer to take pictures you also pay additional money for??? Free my ass! The extra wedding dinner paid for was cold and -wow-they ran out of shrimp and lobster we paid for so we didn’t even get what was PURCHASED! It was thousands to have a “reception dinner” and then they ran out of food they knew was to be served as a wedding reception dinner. So the FREE WEDDING if you stay 4 nights or more is a TOTAL SCAM! Just a great marketing ploy to get you to spend your hard-earned money at their Resort.

After all was said and done, I spoke with 2 managers. They offered good faith gestures to pay for our transport to and from the hospital. Unfortunately communication between the hotel and the taxis are as bad as they are internally! We ended up paying hundreds of dollars $300+ to travel back and forth to the hospital and maybe spent a few hours at best at Sandals during the 4 night 5 day stay. They reimbursed me $90 USD because that was all the receipts I could get from the drivers after the fact.

In addition to already laying out thousands of dollars to be at an “all inclusive resort”, all medical bills had to be paid before she could even GO to this private hospital. Our choice for medical care was private or public and we didn’t hear good things about the public hospital. $1,000 + to see on-site Sandals contracted nurse and doctor, $60,000 later, and Barbados Sandals management Patrick Drake will not even respond to my email? Their good faith gestures-offer to reimburse my Mom and I our 4 nights accommodations were tied to signing a letter stripping us of all our rights! They (Sandals manager) also offered to comp my sister, the bride, and my other sister, a 20 year returning Sandals loyal client, 3 nights accommodations to be used within 1 year but also accompanied by a letter they had to sign stripping them of their rights; but they claim this is standard practice! Offers of good faith gestures tied to legally binding docs signing away your rights is unfathomable to me but that is Sandals definition of Good Faith?

There were many other safety concerns at this resort too! A large, 15 foot dead palm leaf broke off a tree directly about the mother of the groom outside the Portofino Resturant. If she was not under an umbrella, she would have been killed or badly injured but we never addressed this with management because of the lack of response received from what happened with our Mom. We do have photos of it and 3 witnesses! They serve you with broken glasses and there was a loose brick in the reception area by the gazebo if stepped on you would break your ankle! Many hazards all over the property…

You would BE HAPPIER AND WILL spend less MONEY by going to a resort who really does care about their bread and butter (clients and returning clients) and who knows the true definition of HOSPITALITY, GOOD FAITH, and CUSTOMER SERVICE! RUN FAR and FAST from Sandals and Beaches Resorts and give your hard earned money to a resort who truly treats their clients with respect and genuine concern. Don’t waste your time at this resort. Keep reading the bad bad reviews. People killed due to carbon monoxide, others broke neck of femur, beaches were covered in seaweed, property run down and the hospitality leaves much to be desired! Some very sweet people but that isn’t Sandals; just kind island residents employed there.

If I could put no stars I would! Booked Saint Lucia “golf resort: La Toc Booked in December for a March trip checked in the week before trip an found a disclaimer that said the 9 holes on site course was closed in January so course was closed 2/3 weeks after I booked! No updates no disclaimer that it could or was expected to close even now in every page of there site it’s selling you the course an on the very last page there if a tiny disclaimer at the bottom that say course is closed. I called customer service a there first option is maybe you can fly to Jamaica we have a sandals with a course there…… I fly out in the morning that’s not a real option.there next explanation was the course closed before you booking ( yet as of right now there site says closed in January) so nothing we can do. Over $7,000 in room/flights ect an there best option was oops will look at our site

Very underwhelming. I was blown away at how cheap the food is and how they get around the “all you can eat” by serving very small portions and controlling how you order. The hibachi restaurant forces you to only get the sample size of all the meats, the appetizers are so small it’s insane. One of the appetizers was half of a scallop and 1 shrimp. I cannot make this up.

Some of the staff were incredible people while some of the staff were very “meh” about us. My wife and I were told we couldn’t eat at one of the restaurants because I didn’t have a collared shirt on or close toed shoes. Although wearing very nice sandals and shirt, because I’m not a girl I have a strict dress code. This was told to me verbatim by the hostess who refused us service. At an all inclusive… the only reason it got a 2 star is because we met some incredible people here who we became friends with and there’s a drink called “dirty banana” which is fantastic. Sandals St. Lucia is not it

Sandals Antigua
Overpriced and underwhelming.
We booked a room which unbeknown to us is in the oldest part of the resort.
During our stay we had to negotiate our way through scaffolding,sit and listen to tiling work and associated dust. We experienced many areas of wet paint and generally the overall impression was that of a tired area of the resort and definitely not 5 star luxury.
Better quality available at lower prices...
Just a rip off!

Jamaica royal Montego Bay eventually got a lovely room other two rooms awful one very dated actually had a shower curtain!
Lots of wedding parties resulting in tribal behaviour by several guests that use swimming pools as a toilet hence we never used. The beach is small and rammed with dated sun beds. The other Montego Bay hotel we visited sane thing full of short haul drunken 50 year old toddlers from the USA and it’s right next to the airport so very noisy. Sandals kindly moved us to their resort in Negril which had a lovely beach but guess what sane thing full of drunks room was very tired and food in all three resorts was mostly frozen mass produced rubbish and as we were in Jamaica it wasn’t really safe to eat out so really this brand is absolutely hopeless I wouldn’t recommend oh and check the mattress ours was soiled covered up with mattress protector beware! Also sandals run a points system for giving positive feedback giving money off future bookings hence some of the reviews are good please don’t believe them!

We went in November 2022 for our honeymoon and everything about halcyon resort in st Lucia was amazing from the time we got to the resort until the time we left. The food, experience, beach, workers, and the room were absolutely amazing! All of the workers there were so helpful and nice the entire time. Angie in the club sandals was a blessing to have the entire time. She helped us with anything we had questions about and always made It a point to put her guest best interests in everything they did or needed. So I would highly recommend this resort and using Angie in club sandals to help you out for your entire stay.

The reason for my max score for Sandals is not even for its obvious value in location, food, etc.
While on the Sandals South Coast resort in Jamaica, I managed to break the neck of my femur.
Not only Sandals was perfect in taking care of me but went beyond. They graciously allowed us to spend the three days left of our interrupted vacation a week later in a different resort.
This facilitated my recovery after surgery, before re-entry.
Beyond the call of duty.
Thanks to Keran (Theron?) in South Resort, and to Tracy and Cristopher in Montego Bay. We are grateful.

Here is what you need to know before booking any of these.
*No white sands here. It's not as advertised.

*There is only one airport on the island and its a 2hr drive from the airport to the resort. Buckle-up for a wild ride with the locals on narrow roads at high speeds!

*This is not a private area around the Bungalows.

*Local Fisherman netting through our swimming area the first day at 8am, then returned to the area everyday afterwards. My wife was dressing during this time as they swam up to our ladder and under our Bungalow. Management stated "it's the ocean, we can't stop them."

*Rodney bay is very busy. Cruise ships, yachts, sailboats, fishing charters, all anchor in the bay area bringing guests to the beach area.

*Guest are free to roam around the Bungalows. Occupying the Bungalow lounge areas with fire pits, swings, and gazebos.

*Little to no privacy. Southside Bungalows face a public beach.

*The fishermen netting(Over 300") around the bungalows ruined the water clarity. During their netting, our lounge floats were damaged and needing repaired so Sandals removed these during the last two days with no replacements.

*Fisherman also netted around the area where we did the "Under the water trek", visibility was ruined for the day.

*Security is an issue. We were offered to buy cocaine and other drugs at the resort beach gate. Guards are posted around the resort, but the Bungalow area is guard free and our doors would not lock completely. Sandals stated that they could not prevent anyone from entering our water area, even during the night. "It's the ocean"

*We were told that we could not fish, yet others(guests) happily fished around the Bungalow.

*Jet ski's and other craft go speeding by at all hours. "No wake" areas do not exist here.

*Locals throwing trash in the water as they go boating by the Bungalows.

*Food is subpar when compared to other resorts, but it is free.
The Japanese restaurant ran out of Sake :( The restaurants seemed short staffed.

*In case you want to sleep in, groundskeepers start early with the leaf blowers and gas-power pressure washers.

See pictures.
#Sandals
#OverwaterBungalows
#Bungalows

Ok here it is … poor customer service ( ignorant ) , poor rooms , poor butlers ( really poor ) dated rooms , entitled staff …..it’s all a rip off being mis-sold a brand …….£16k wasted on a has been organisation .

By far the rudest most unprofessional company I have ever dealt with. DO NOT book with these people, especially if you want a wedding. arranged. They simply do not care. They want your money and that is it They do not respond to emails, they do not call when they say they will . Total joke of a company.

We traveled back on September 2022, and experienced what we thought was paradise. Theft of property in room while away, and reported it only to get nothing in return for our troubles. We purchased items from the photo shop and only one came via FedEx last week!!! Still waiting on the other items. They have a beautiful property, but extremely overpriced as I am a certified travel expert licensed, Bonded and Insured since 2017. And I take these experiences back to our clients to let them know where to go and where not to go. Don't spend your money or waste any time with this company. I called for a refund on items that they promised would be delivered by a certain time and they didn't. Poor follow up service regarding customer complaints and issues. Room was nice on the Bluff and view amazing. Call the corporate number and they constantly place me on hold or transfer the calls this is how you treat couples that spend 10k on their 17th wedding anniversary. Never again!!!!!

This is regarding Grand St. Lucian.

There were four of us on this trip. We travel twice a year and typically stay at resorts like Sandals. The other couple has stayed at Sandals repeatedly and I speak for them in saying this trip was disappointing. They are reconsidering future trips with Sandals. Overall at St. Lucian we all got the impression that service staff are extremely friendly but either don’t like or disrespect tourists behind their backs, playing some weird game, or simply have no capacity to remember orders. Either way it is an unsettling experience which begs the question of whether St. Lucia is a safe island?

On a very positive note, two employees stood out. The hospitality director, a young lady, was super helpful. Beyond the call of duty. And one of the concierges diligently bailed us out of a mishap with our return travel to the airport. We weren’t on the list for some reason. He hustled to get us on a bus and we thank him greatly for that!

WE ARE VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH OUR TRIP IN DEC TO SANDALS GRAND IN ST LUCIA NO COFFEE FOR 3 DAYS IN ROOM COFFEE MACINE DIDNT WLORK COULD NOT GET IN OR OUT OF SAFE FOOD WAS JUST SO SO DIDNT CHANG OUR SHEETS ALL WEEK WERE TOLD WE HAD TO ASK TO HAVE THEM CHANGED SERVICE WAS SO SO ONLY GOOD PART WAS HUBBYS CELEBRATION FOR HIS BIRTHDAY WE HAVE BEEN THERE 12 TIMES AND NOT THE SANDALS WE LOVE AND KNOW WILL NOT BE GOING BACK SANDALS YOU HAVE LOST A GREAT CUSTOMER